# Modeling Neglected and Underutilized Crops for Future Food Resilience: A Regional MaxEnt Workflow

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a tool to help farmers choose resilient crops for their region by predicting which neglected crops will thrive under current and future climate conditions.

## Contribution

A high-throughput MaxEnt workflow is developed for predicting suitable neglected and underutilized crops in regions with limited data.

## Key findings

- The workflow identifies highly resilient neglected and underutilized crops for specific regions.
- Geospatial effects of climate change on these crops are not uniform.
- The tool supports smallholders in making informed crop decisions based on climate projections.

## Abstract

Increasing agrobiodiversity is a widely supported idea and prevalent topic in academic discussion recently as a means to combat the effects of climate change. However, there is a lack of connection between academic discussion and application. Our study aims to create a high‐throughput MaxEnt workflow design that can be used to predict which neglected and underutilized crops (NUS) to use in any regional area with limited occurrence data. Our study reveals possible candidates for highly resilient NUS and that geospatial effects of climate change on these NUS were not homogenous. This tool can be deployed to help smallholders decide the most appropriate NUS to develop in any area based on crop suitability of current and future conditions.